Soap for childern

[psfred]

My niece got excited when I gave her some soap yesterday, and has asked me to make some "natural" soap for her to use on her two children, ages 4 and 2.

I'm thinking something like 30% HO safflower oil, 60% lard, and 10% CO with 5% superfat, very low scent with lavender or my 'special mix' of frankensense and myrrh, sandalwood, and some floral FO (lilac/wisteria, gardenia, or lavender, maybe lemon verbena). Scent would be around half a gram or a gram ppo, no more.

Or maybe the same recipe with tallow or a mix of tallow and lard instead of lard.

The goal is a nice mild soap for their delicate skin that is less drying than commercial soaps are.

Any suggestions are welcome!

Thanks

 

[Ivanstein]

Lard and safflower make pretty amazing soap. Cheap enough too. I think you have a fine recipe there.

Hard to beat a pure olive oil soap for gentleness on the skin though. That may be another option for you. [emoji6]

 

[psfred]

I have some castile aging, but she was thinking Thanksgiving....

Will make a couple batches in the next week or so I think. I can get a Castile going for next year, too, I have plenty of olive oil at the moment.

 

[Seawolfe]

Im curing out a pure OO castilles made with 95%/ 5% KOH and 1 TBSP sugar PPO in the lye water. They've only been curing a month so the lather is still meh, but nice and gentle so far. The 5% KOH is supposed to make the cure not take as long per another thread in here.

You know what makes a fabulous lather? 65% lard, 20% sweet almond oil and 15% coconut oil with 1 TBSP PPO sugar in the water before the lye. That one is also only a month old - its a gentle lavender soap I made for a friend and even at a month cure its fabulous already.

 

[Obsidian]

I like your recipe. Its gentle and imo opinion, will be superior to any castile. I would go with a safer EO like lavender or a lavender/lemongrass blend.

 

[lenarenee]

Given the age of the children, I'd skip the lemongrass eo. For any other scent I'd use the lightest amount possible.

 

[Susie]

Why would you skip the lemongrass EO? It is my go-to scent for everyone with super sensitive skin.

BTW, I second the high lard soap with sugar, I would add some castor oil, though, to make bubbles you can blow with your hand. Very entertaining to young children.

 

[lenarenee]

Just an abundance of caution Susie, given that lemongrass is high in citral and is a somewhat common irritant or allergen in adults. We call soap a wash off product, but in truth it doesn't all wash off - especially with a 5% sf. Children's skin is so thin and is affected more than ours. On top of that is Robert Tisserand's recommendation that that children under 2 not be exposed to it. As knowledgeable as Tisserand is, his recommendations can't be spot on due to the physiological uniqueness of each individual - especially children.

Personally, I wouldn't even use lavender eo for 2 and 4 year olds. I'd keep it scent free. But of the two I think lemongrass has the higher potential of being problematic.

 

[Saranac]

Given the age of the children, I'd skip the lemongrass eo. For any other scent I'd use the lightest amount possible.

I concur. There's not much that bothers my skin. . . . except lemongrass. Even small amounts in a wash-off product sets me on fire.

 

[cherrycoke216]

.

Personally, I wouldn't even use lavender eo for 2 and 4 year olds. I'd keep it scent free. But of the two I think lemongrass has the higher potential of being problematic.

Is this because the research of lavender EO being a hormone disruptor? Which make boys grow man ****s?
can anyone with tons of EO knowledge tell me which one is right, Robert Tisserand or National Institute of Health ?

https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/www...l-oils-hormone-disruptors-1882143092.amp.html


http://roberttisserand.com/2013/02/lavender-oil-is-not-estrogenic/

 

[BattleGnome]

The issue with the debate is the one “reliable” study was done with plastic equipment (unless I’m missing information). It was enough for the court cases at the time but there’s still a ton of people who want to dispute it on the grounds of “essential oils and plastic”

 

[SparksnFlash]

There is actually a lot of information (reliable and not) regarding effects of essential oils. Lavendar has come under fire, particularly it's usage with young boys. Doing your own research and coming to your own conclusions is probably the soundest course of action, and/or apply the addage; "When in doubt, leave it out."

 

[lenarenee]

Is this because the research of lavender EO being a hormone disruptor? Which make boys grow man ****s?
can anyone with tons of EO knowledge tell me which one is right, Robert Tisserand or National Institute of Health ?

https://www.google.com.tw/amp/s/www...l-oils-hormone-disruptors-1882143092.amp.html


http://roberttisserand.com/2013/02/lavender-oil-is-not-estrogenic/

Oh good grief is that still floating around???

No, that's not my reason. I am, generally speaking, against using essential oils on young children for a couple of reasons that have to do with how eo's are made and the physiology of children. It comes from my training and work experience in the pharmacy and childcare fields. (and my more recent college education endeavors as I study to enter the occupational therapy field)

I could bore everyone with paragraphs of details, but I can boil it down to these:

1) children's physiology is not the same as adults which makes them often more sensitive and vulnerable - and easier to harm. (think of immature renal systems, for example.) Their small size means that 1 drop of essential oil to us, can be equivelant to 5 drops to them. They are easily exposed to much stronger concentration than they should be.

2)essential oils are highly concentrated - most are distilled with water and it takes several pounds of material to make those tiny bottles of eo's

3) no 2 crops of plants are alike. Therefore each field yields a different strength of essential oil, so each bottle can be very different.

4)The huge majority of essential oils are not standardized - so one knows exactly how much of what essential oil constituent you are actually exposing your child to.

5) Despite having Robert Tisserand, there truly are not enough quality (double blind, objectively funded) scientific medical studies done that give us definite safety declarations, or proper dosing.

6) Plants are subjected to pesticides and herbicides. Organic doesn't necessarily protect you because organic does NOT mean 100% chemical free. Ever talk to an organic farmer? They can legally - with that organic certificate in hand - spray their crops with certain pesticides - and do so far more often than standard unorganic farmers. Now....remember how concentrated those essentiail oils are????


(sorry - that was still longer than I wanted.)

As for lavender - it's serious stuff; if you read about each of the individual components of lavender - there's some impressive stuff there, both positive and negative depending on how its used.

As an abundance of caution and respect for the fact that we don't really know squat about how essential oils affect children, I don't purposely expose my little one to essential oils (such as diffusing, or applying to skin in a carrier oil. She's 10 now so is closer to developmental maturity. I don't fret over some essential oil in soap or lotions. She rarely needs lotion anyway. But I was pretty stringent until she reached the age of 7 or 8.